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Having lived in 7 countries Graham characterizes himself as a citizen of the world who has little regard for borders or nationalism. He grow up in a multicultural environment in which the whole family embraced the best of any cultures they encountered. As Graham describes
“There was always food on the table but my parents didn’t believe in giving pocket money so my bother, sister and I were pretty limited when it came to hobbies or activities.”
As a result, He used to occupy himself by making things like simple electronic gadgets out of household junk. He also drew a lot, encouraged by an artistic mother. These were the most creative outlets of his childhood. On the insistence of his parents he started studying for a career in engineering and science but he ended up switching degrees and graduated in law at a top university. However career in law was not what Graham really wanted
“I worked in a law firm in Australia and even a few investment banks in London before taking time out to ‘find myself’ and finally switch to a career in photography.”
It wasn’t a bad move at all. Where the rapid climb up the success ladder was fast it was not an easy one. It was only due to his sheer hard work and the dedication to his passion that enabled Graham to reach where he is now. Since taking up photography as a profession he has worked for many high profile clients such as Mercedes-Benz, Pizza Hut, Volkswagen, Lufthansa, Cadbury-Schweppes and GlaxoSmithKline. His work has also taken him to 31 countries, spanning 5 continents.
CM: Who or what influenced you to start taking photographs?
GM: Around my 9th or 10th birthday I received a Polaroid camera from my parents. Each film cassette was enough for only 10 images and I didn’t get many cassettes. That was my first experience but it was just a toy. Then I found my father’s jammed Yashica SLR and managed to get it running again so I started playing with that occasionally, even getting rather experimental. However, I would be lucky to get a roll or two of film a year to play with so that limited any real development.
By my late teens my bedroom wall was plastered with all sorts of photos I liked from magazines, but rather than photos of singers or actresses, the images I chose were mainly black and white fashion images from Vogue, Marie Claire or Elle. I really loved the aesthetic quality of these images (and still have a few of them somewhere), so I suppose they were the first real influence. After finishing high school I briefly flirted with the idea of getting into photography but even then (in the pre-digital era) all the photographers I knew were complaining that you could never make money, so I took the ’sensible’ path and studied law. To support myself through my degree I started doing a lot of freelance graphics work on Macs, including retouching with Adobe Photoshop. My business became surprisingly successful, however I was spending a lot of time retouching other photographers’ work and stuck in a dark room, which I resented. Some of the repro houses I was working with rated me as the best retoucher in Melbourne so I didn’t see any point in rocking the boat and I was making good money for the first time in my life. In retrospect it was a great preparation for the digital photography revolution about to arrive.
Photography remained as an occasional hobby only and any hopes of pursuing it as a career seemed nothing more than a foolish fantasy. When I moved back to Europe, I bought a Hasselblad 2000FC and enjoyed the results but the cost of film, development, scanning and printing always seemed to hold me back. It wasn’t until I bought my first digital SLR later that I really started to photograph. Until that time I had probably taken only a few hundred images in my life, and suddenly I was doing that in a month. This really fuelled my desire to learn everything I could and experiment, and I soon became technically very proficient although lacking in real world experience and confidence. While in Sweden someone saw some photos on my wall which I had taken and asked if I could shoot a job for his small business. I acted as if this happened to me all the time but it was a thrill to be offered my first paid assignment. With the help of a friend who kindly loaned me all of his equipment, we did the shoot and the client was happy. Then a friend paid me to do a portrait of her and her boyfriend. Then the penny dropped – if people were coming to me without me trying then what could I achieve if I really committed myself to it? Well that’s when I sold my car and bought a load of used equipment and 2.5 years later I haven’t looked back.
CM: Why advertising work? Why not weddings, or landscapes or some other sort of photography? Was there a specific reason behind this?
GM: I love shooting people, I enjoy shooting in different environments, I crave variety and I relate better to images which communicate some sort of story or context. This personal preference just happens to suit advertising and fashion.
CM: Fashion and Advertising is a very competitive field, how did you get started in fashion and advertising and how easy was it to get your first client?
GM: It might be a competitive field, but I believe you can only become a great artist if you pursue the art first and the money second so I decided to commit myself to the genres I am passionate about. If I just wanted to make money I would never have left law and banking.
CM: Everybody has high points and low points in their careers, what have been the high point and the low points for you?
GM: My first magazine cover and my first international ad campaign were highlights. The low points were times of financial difficulty. No surprises there.
CM: Where do you want to go with your photography and how has the internet helped spread your work
GM: I’d like to work on ever more elaborate, creative and quirky images which should become easier as my budgets get larger.
The internet has not been helpful to spread my work to any clients, other than my website which is a great tool for any photographer. Nothing beats personal networks and published work.
CM: Your photos have a distinct look to them especially the photo of the woman running after a pair of trousers (as shown above). Can you tell us more about this photograph, and generally how do you go about achieving that sort of a look.
GM: That particular photograph was for a local fashion designer who had designed both the trousers with the flaps, and the black dress. He asked me on a Friday to come up with something by Sunday, so there wasn’t much time. I thought the flaps looked like wings so I got the idea to give the trousers some life by making them fly, then of course a girl in the dress could be pursuing them. Despite the time pressure it was probably the simplest location shoot I ever did. We found the location after only half an hour of driving. The weather was perfect. I had the image clearly in my mind and the model was so responsive to my direction that we had the shot in only 30 frames! I used some softboxes and a polarizing filter to achieve a deeper sky. That image was selected by deviantart.com as one of the top images of 2006, which was an honour and great encouragement to me.
CM: Who has been your biggest influence in your photography work and where do you look for inspiration for your work?
GM: There are many photographers whom I admire but they don’t influence my work directly. I often see a photo which is nothing like something I would do but be excited by it, just because it is a powerful or fresh or creative or witty image. It inspires me to try and produce equally good work. Sometimes I see certain elements of an image in a magazine and I start to think how I could use them in a different context. That is one of the most common sources of inspiration for me – I just need one element to catch my imagination and then the idea evolves over time in stages until I can see the final image in my head.
CM: Tools of the trade, what are yours, and what is the single most important piece of equipment that you own and use.
GM: I use a Rollei 6008AF camera with Zeiss, Rollei and Schneider lenses and a Sinar eMotion 54LV digital back. I love the results from this combination and it gives me the fast flash sync speed I need for this kind of work. Apart from camera, I couldn’t survive without my lighting equipment. I use Profoto Pro lighting with a variety of modifiers on location for every shoot. Of course the lighting equipment couldn’t work without my portable power unit.
CM: What is your preferred post processing method? and how do you organise your photographic work flow from shooting to final production? In your line of work, it must be very important to have a streamlined process from shooting to final production, can you please tell our readers more about it?
GM: I generally process the RAW files into 16 bit TIFF files with no curves, sharpening, noise reduction or anything else applied. I only use Sinar’s raw developer for white balance control. I am so comfortable in Photoshop and have more control there that I use it for everything else. Besides it is good practice to use a non-destructible curve layer in Photoshop which you can change your mind about later with no effect on image quality. I generally have just one or at most a few images to select from a shoot so my workflow is all about image quality and editing flexibility rather than speed or convenience. The amount of retouching can vary hugely from job to job.
CM: Where do you want to go from here, any future projects lined up?
GM: Yes there are 2 projects lined up at the moment both for household brand names which is exciting. I can’t say more at the moment. I have started doing more work in London and just found an agent to represent me in neighbouring Finland. All I ask from the future is to keep busy working with gifted creative directors and designers from around the world.
We would like to thank Graham for taking the time out to interview with Colours Magazine. It has been great talking to him. I have known of Graham due to his work, for the past couple of years, however it is only now that I have gotten to know the person whose work I have admired for such a long time. I was very moved by his decision to leave a good stable career in Law to pursue his interests, as it is not easy to rock the boat. Many people dream of pursuing their passions, however only a few go on to truly realise their dreams. Graham is a prime example of what you can achieve if you put your mind to it. We wish Graham all the best of luck in his career and I personally would definitely be keeping an eye out for his work and if he ever decides to publish a photo book detailing his work I would probably be the first in line to buy one. We leave you with few more of his wonderful images. Be sure to visit his website ‘FotoZ‘ and have a look at more of his work. Enjoy!!
links
Graham Mitchell : Graham Mitchell
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Graham’s work is the most imaginative photography I have seen in a long time. Bravo. KR